Michael Goodwin of the New York Post is out with a column arguing the just-started war in Iran is a necessity — not a choice.
He defends this assertion — which contradicts the left’s claim that the conflict is a “war of choice” — by pointing to “the last-ditch negotiations” that occurred before last weekend’s deadly strikes.
“The picture that emerges is of an Iran hell-bent on becoming a nuclear-armed power and determined to continue exporting its bloody Islamist revolution throughout the region and around the world,” Goodwin writes for the Post.
“That was the leaders’ fatal mistake, for unlike his two immediate predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Trump had no interest in bribing the mullahs with pallets of cash and sweet-talking them into joining the civilized world,” he adds.
“They sent Iran pallets of cash” is one of those things that sounds like a made-up anti-Obama line but it actually did very much happen https://t.co/QJMIqIy0a2 pic.twitter.com/tfQBj6a19C
— Dominic Pino (@DominicJPino) March 2, 2026
Goodwin notes that the fact that President Donald Trump “is cut from a different cloth” from his predecessors became clear during his first term in office, when he droned Qasem Soleimani.
Experiences like this led him “to begin his second term with a vow that Iran would never get a nuclear weapon on his watch,” though he “still believed that a negotiated settlement was possible and far more preferable than military action.”
But it soon became clear that Iran wasn’t willing to cooperate, which is what led to Trump’s initial strike on Iran last June, during Israel’s 12-day war with the rogue regime.
“In a single night, seven American B-2 bombers flew from Missouri to smash the mullahs’ three main enrichment sites with bunker-buster bombs,” according to Goodwin.
Yet despite this massive move of aggression, Trump continued to push for nuclear negotiations with Iran afterward.
Even when the streets of Iran erupted with protests that the regime ended with ruthless slaughter, Trump tried to negotiate.
Everything reportedly changed during the final round of negotiations, when the Iranians allegedly “arrogantly boasted about their stockpiles of highly enriched uranium and showed no willingness to yield,” according to Goodwin.
His source? Key Trump administration negotiator Steve Witkoff.
“In that first meeting, both of the Iranian negotiators said to us directly, with no shame, that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60 percent, and they were aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs,” Witkoff told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday.
“That was the beginning of their negotiating stance . . . they were proud of it. They were proud that they had evaded all sorts of oversight protocols to get to a place where they could deliver 11 nuclear bombs,” he added.
Stunning revelation from Steve Witkoff: “….In our first meeting, Iran negotiators boasted of having enough enriched uranium to build 11 nuclear bombs….They were proud of it…..”#FreeIran #Iran #Israel #IranRevoIution2026 pic.twitter.com/I57HHUQhwN
— Erez Neumark 🇮🇱🇧🇪 (@ErezNeumark) March 3, 2026
Witkoff continued by revealing that the Iranians had arrogantly rejected every offer that was made to them. This led him and the Trump administration peace envoy Jared Kushner to conclude that the Iranians had no interest in cooperating and playing nice.
“In addition to the continued killing of civilians, the refusal to budge was the final straw for Trump,” Goodwin writes. “Indeed, the six-hour meeting in Geneva on Feb. 26 produced only an agreement to hold yet another meeting.”
That’s when Trump began assembling a massive U.S. military buildup around Iran and also planning an attack with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, all while still publicly pushing for a nuclear deal that he knew wasn’t actually coming.
Netanyahu reportedly wanted the U.S. military to focus on taking out Iran’s ballistic missiles so that his country, Israel, could focus on eliminating the ayatollah and his mullahs.
In concluding his column, Goodwin notes the irony of it all, writing that Iran’s now-dead leaders would all still “be alive” today if “they had only been smart enough to make a deal with the man who wrote the book on the art of it.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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